Westchester Community College Foundation

Corporate Mentors Help Students Prepare for a Career in the Business World. 

Mentoring programs are becoming more and more prevalent at colleges these days. But at Westchester Community College they have developed a mentoring program with a unique focus. It’s called the Workplace Culture Coaching Program. The Program offers business students the opportunity to work one-on-one with corporate mentors. Students visit their volunteer mentors at their respective corporate sites. Mentors show students the corporate environment while helping them explore career options and the professional working world.

Why Workplace Culture Coaching? The answer is that success in the workplace is not only the result of technical skills, but is also directly related to interpersonal skills. These interpersonal skills are the unwritten rules of workplace behavior. They may sound simple--things like how to dress, how to develop a professional demeanor, how to communicate with fellow workers and how to greet the CEO in the elevator, for example. But for many students these unwritten rules can be particularly challenging and vastly different from any environment that they have experienced. Therefore, pairing students with corporate mentors was thought to be an ideal way to help teach students to recognize, assimilate, and utilize the unwritten rules of workplace etiquette.

The program’s corporate mentors are coaches. Through a series of meetings at their respective workplaces, they are developing personal and supportive relationships with students in hopes of passing on the valuable lessons they have learned by functioning in the corporate world. In fact, they are passing on the tools for achieving upward mobility in the workplace.

The program pairs students with corporate mentors for a full semester. Through a series of on-campus seminars and off-site corporate visits, students receive customized training in such things as communication methods, business etiquette, goal setting, developing professional demeanor, dining etiquette, and career planning. On-site mentoring in the corporate environment includes a tour of the workplace, attending a professional meeting, getting things done in the business world, and understanding corporate structure.

When Nerissa Williams first joined the Workplace Culture Coaching program, she had never heard of Robert’s Rules of Order and had no idea what the Chief Financial Officer of a corporation did. After six months of mentoring with MBIA’s Barbara Edelmann, she knows these things and a lot more. Nerissa’s and Barbara’s relationship is typical of the bonding that often takes place between mentor and mentee.

“I had no idea what it was like inside a big company until now,” says Nerissa. “Just the thought of it intimidated me. I assumed that no one spoke to each other, that everyone stayed inside locked offices all day. Talking with Barbara and visiting MBIA changed all my perceptions about corporate life—for the better. I’ve always had questions about business and careers, but no one to ask. I could ask Barbara anything and everything.”

Nerissa said that only now, after completing the program, could she imagine herself fitting into corporate life. Previously, her only experiences had been working at an ear piercing store, and for a collection agency. “The collection agency was the worst,” she said. “But I thought that was all there was for me. I know better now.” Nerissa is planning to become an attorney.

As volunteers, this group of mentors echoes the sentiments of the steady stream of more than 200 dedicated volunteers who enhance the campus daily at Westchester Community College. This is an opportunity to help people, to make a difference, to give back to the community, and to contribute to the success of the next generation.

Back